Open Collective
Open Collective
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Wobbly

COLLECTIVE
other
labor
union

Wobbly is a communication app for precarious workers, to help them organise for power.

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+ 2

Top financial contributors

1
John Evans

£350 GBP since Sep 2018

2
Chris Devereux

£225 GBP since May 2019

3
Leo Sammallahti

£120 GBP since Oct 2019

4
Brennan

£80 GBP since Jun 2019

5
oat

£25 GBP since Mar 2019

6
Incognito

£3 GBP since Dec 2019

Wobbly is all of us

Our contributors 6

Thank you for supporting Wobbly.

John Evans

Admin

£350 GBP

Brennan

£80 GBP

oat

backer

£25 GBP

incognito

backer

£3 GBP

Budget


Transparent and open finances.

+£20.00GBP
Completed
Contribution #55570

Matrix Software Development

from John Evans to Wobbly
-£400.00 GBP
Paid
Invoice #172456
+£20.00GBP
Completed
Contribution #55570
£
Today’s balance

£79.77 GBP

Total raised

£743.84 GBP

Total disbursed

£664.07 GBP

Estimated annual budget

£20.00 GBP

About


Introduction

Wobbly is a workplace organising platform, currently under development. We’re creating a space for energetic, powerful, and democratic unions to win struggles and grow.

Wobbly is being developed as free (as in freedom) software. We aim to make our organization as transparent as welcoming as possible, and we plan to incorporate as a platform co-operative so that the platform is collectively owned by those who work on it and use it.

The platform

Wobbly differs from other chat applications by building federated organisation in from the start. Every user enters the app by joining or creating a local node – what might be called a branch in traditional organising. They do this by searching for their workplace when they open the app for the first time. The nodes are named after their workplace, and can be geotagged to make them easier to find.

In each node there are three parts: First, encrypted communication that allows workers to talk to each other. Second, a way to put forward proposals and vote on them. Third, and this is the part that no one else is working on, a way to communicate with other nodes: Group-to-Group Communication.

If workers in nodes want to do things like make shared resolutions, strike together, or organise shared events, they can form a supernode. Then, using mandated recallable delegates (or some other democratic system) to communicate, the supernode can coordinate the local nodes that constitute it, and direct the shared resources towards their chosen ends.

Our plan is that multiple supernodes will be able to come together to make supernodes of their own - an ultranode. The relationship of a supernode to an ultranode is the same as the relationship between a local node and its supernode. It uses the same democratic system that links the local nodes and supernodes, this time with the supernodes selecting delegates to put forward mandates for the ultranode. Because the democratic systems are ultimately derived from the local nodes, the ultranode remains controlled by the workers themselves, minimising their reliance on a hierarchical union leadership to take struggles forward.

Funding

We are currently working on a beta version of the platform. Since our work is currently volunteer-based, our primary expenses are server costs.

Our team